Who are you managing and how do you lead?

Author: Chris Swan

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Not all leaders are managers, but all managers should be a leader - at least to some extent. Unfortunately in business though, we don't always promote leaders to management positions. Rather, we tend to reward or promote on the basis of technical competence.

This is not to say that technical competence should not be rewarded with promotion and greater career opportunity, or that a level of technical competence should not be required in management positions. But we can't act surprised when those we elevate begin to struggle with the 'leadership' side of the role.

Because in the absence of any other direction, exposure, or professional development, a technically competent manager is likely to lead by example. To set a standard of excellence that inspires comparable or emulative behaviours in their followers/reports. And this is a perfectly legitimate way to lead - it's called exercising expert power, and it will, I'm sure, resonate with many people reading this blog post.

But not everyone in our society is motivated by the same things, hold the same values and/or are guided by the same attitudes. Employee bases within organisations are a cross section of society, as such, we would expect that employees have differing motivations, values and attitudes also.

These things, along with other variables like emotions, ethics/morals and social contexts influence employee behaviour and how they respond in employment environments.

Here in lies the issue with the technically competent manager (without any further leadership skills or traits).

The technical exemplar you set as this leader type, and expert power you wield, might work with one employee, but then not the other. It might even work one day but not the next with the very same employee. There's nothing wrong with the employee/follower response in these scenarios. Their employment behaviours are simply dependent on an ever shifting group of psycho-graphic and contextual variables.

And so we learn that as a leader you sometimes need to be one form of manager for one employee (or one moment in time) and another form for the next.

If this sounds like a lot of work, or that it's beyond the remit of you management role, then you probably have some leadership development ahead of you. Because the approach that might have served you well up to this point, could become redundant or less effective at any point in time.

In fact, leadership based in expert power and technical competence is normally most effective in a very stable and predictable operating environment. As the operating environment changes and becomes more dynamic or ambiguous - technical excellence and the expert power it creates is less influential. Suddenly, amidst this uncertainty, followers look for referent power that they tend to find in charismatic transformational leaders.

It's for all the reasons above that I worry when people espouse to be one particular style or type of leader. Because there's no one right way to lead, there's no perfect combination of leadership behaviours a manager should emulate. Good leadership comes from the capacity to recognise the context and factors influencing follower behaviour, and adapt their approach to suit.

A good leader is different things to different people in different times.

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Chris Swan is the Director (Owner) of Swan Consultancy.

If you would like further information on leadership/management behaviour, Chris Swan is available for consultation and coaching on this and other business and management issues.